The Unloved: Great Characters, Poor Reputations
Welcome, ahaha, to The Unloved, where I take a look at some less-popular characters from various fantasy worlds (primarily comics), and basically show you how wrong your peer-influenced organic brains can be. The inspiration for this recurring feature will be the star of the next installment, but a certain oft-maligned leader will be today's focus. Without further ado, let's take a gander at...
Scott Summers, a.k.a. Cyclops!
Yeah, Cyclops. Unlike your average team leader/field general types, Cyclops remains one of the X-Men's most maligned characters. While heroic characters like Leonardo, Captain America, and even Superman and Batman manage to avoid too much criticism for their roles on their respective teams, Cyclops never seemed to get a fair shake from fans, is reduced to a jerky caricature in the film universe, and is frequently mentioned as one of the book's least-likable regulars. He isn't Maggot (or that insufferable Cajun prick, Gambit), sure, but he's no Wolverine when it comes to sales numbers. But why?
One of the main reasons, and one that doesn't reflect well on the intelligence of the readers, is that Cyclops comes across as an authoritarian hardass. In particular, Scott has come into frequent conflict with hairy third-wheel Wolverine, the X-Men's most popular (and currently dead) character. Their personalities don't mesh well, with Wolverine putting on his usual 'gruff loner' front and coming and going as he pleases to pursue whatever personal agenda tickles his 6-issue-arc fancy at the time. Additionally, the two have come into conflict over their shared love interest, Jean Grey (she of the excellent code names), and readers have invariably taken Logan's (or James', or whatever) side on the issue.
But replace Wolverine in the love triangle (soundtrack by New Order) with just about anyone else (let's pick Angel, just for fun), and who do you side with? Cyclops and Jean were the item in X-Men, their love story spanning space, time, and even the afterlife (much credit to Chris Claremont, the architect behind the X-Men's enduring relevance and popularity, for making the romance angle something worth reading. Anybody who suffered through the never-ending Spidey/MJ and Supes/Lois tripe over the years knows how dull this could turn out). Wolverine essentially shows up and announces he's crazy about a woman he barely knows, then sets about trying to one-up her devoted boyfriend (and later husband) at every turn. Scott suffers through this with dignity, though certainly not in silence, and during the various times Jean decided to leave for Wolverine, he bore that burden as well as can be expected. When you really boil it down, Wolverine is the jerk here.
Not to forget my earlier point about Wolverine's waxing and waning loyalty to the team, that's a luxury Scott Summers has never had. Losing his mother at a young age, being estranged from his brother, and having a father who left him hanging to play pirate in space with a big alien named Ch'od, Scott has always had to carry the weight of responsibility while those around him, even Jean, continually let him down. For further evidence of his dedication and restraint, note that Cyke has generally ignored the fact that he could blast a certain Canadian pest into mush with the blink of an eye, yet he puts his personal happiness aside for the team, and the dream, almost every time. Has he had moments of weakness? Of course. But when the chips are down and mutantkind is in danger, you won't find Scott Summers dicking around in Madripoor or ruining his own continuity. You'll find him at the front lines, leading the way and putting himself in danger to protect others, even if he harbors serious dislike of those he protects.
I mentioned the dream, and X-Men fans know I'm referring to Xavier's dream of mutant and human integration and peace. Cyclops is the leader of Xavier's team. Now, think about that (if you can, ahaha) for a moment. Charles Xavier, the most powerful and practiced telepath on Earth-616, can access the minds and read the potential of quite literally every mutant on Earth. And yet, even with more powerful (or at least "cooler") candidates all over the world, Scott Summers was the man he chose to lead his team, to carry out the actions that would make the dream a reality, and to represent all the potential for good that mutantkind has to offer. Xavier chose this man to keep the dream going, to safeguard it and an entire race. One day Xavier will die, and he will die having anointed Cyclops the true savior of his kind. Would he have shown the same faith in Colossus? Gambit? Nightcrawler? No. Not even Jean, his protégé, was given that responsibility. Only a man like Scott Summers could handle it, and Xavier got to choose from a pool of every single living mutant.
So, the powers. In superhero comics, you have powers (or maybe a gimmick or gadget, but this is fucking X-Men we're talking about). While I personally, and rightly, believe that powers are secondary to characterization, they are worth mentioning. Cyclops... shoots beams out of his eyes. Due to an injury as a youth/mental block cased by self-doubt, Cyclops needs special lenses to contain his energy. In essence, that means Cyclops is constantly expending power... but he never seems to run out. In more recent years, Cyclops has demonstrated the ability to hold the optic blasts in, and uses his visor to make it easier to control the size and shape of the beam. So what happens if he takes it off? Well, if you're a 60ft Mark IX (or whatever) Sentinel... it reduces you to rubble in just under a second. It's rare that Cyclops ever uses his power to the fullest extent, but if necessary, the guy can level a mountain. "If looks could kill", indeed.
Due to his reliance on solar energy to power the beams, Cyclops has at various times been stuck underground or in other places for long enough that his 'battery' runs dry. While that would seem to make him useless, he is also a dangerous fighter on his own merits, able to take on multiple opponents hand-to-hand and come out on top. With a power set like his, there are many situations where it just isn't practical to unleash a death-beam (like on a spaceship, common enough for the X-Men) and he has to make do with just his physical abilities. Another recurring hindrance, more so in earlier years, is the loss of his visor or glasses. When you can't open your eyes without destroying everything around you, how do you fight? Well, if your name is Scott Summers, the answer is 'pretty damn well'.
Yes, Cyclops has martial arts training, because everybody has martial arts training. Unlike other guys who can back it up with fists when they run out of playing cards or whatever, Cyclops is able to fight blind and in complete darkness. There aren't a lot of guys who can do that; obviously Daredevil, but he has alternate sensory input. Stick, Daredevil's teacher, is a blind martial artist in the great tradition of blind martial artists. I would also put Iron Fist in this group, as the power of Shou-Lao the Undying and his unmatched training probably put him on par with Daredevil at blindfighting. Cyclops himself would rank just below these three, but he has zero special abilities or mystical Oriental tricks. He's just that tough, that skilled, and that dedicated. He knew what his greatest weaknesses were, and he compensates in a way that makes him even more dangerous.
Oh, and Cyclops is a superb field leader, much in the mold of Captain America. While he can't match Cap for on-the-fly strategy (can anyone? no.), he understands the strengths and weaknesses of his team and rarely enters a combat situation without the necessary intel to out a hurting on whoever or whatever the team faces. His generalship is known and respected in-universe.
Cyclops gets a bad rap for being cold and bitter, but he's endured much tragedy in his life. As referenced earlier, his family was either scattered or dead for much of his life, the love of his life spends quite a bit of time either dying, turning evil, or leaving him for an unreliable-if-endearing 'bad boy' that has been overexposed ad nauseum over the last 25 years.
A few highlights:
Master Mold: The most powerful (and largest) Sentinel ever created, Cyclops was forced to fight this mechanical monstrosity on his own, and he won. Strategically crippling the giant robot while scrambling for his life, Cyke led it into an oil field and blew the damn thing up. Again, this is a villain the whole X-team failed to contain to that point. But Cyclops, without teammates to protect, put himself in the line of fire and came out on top.
Apocalypse: The defining villain of the first X-Factor team, we now know that En Sabah Nur is effectively immortal and nearly unmatched in power. Apocalypse is a threat on a much larger scale than almost any X-villain outside of Magneto. But that didn't stop Mr. Summers from reducing him to scrap with one giant blast, letting his full power loose in an attempt to save the life of an infant son he would never truly be able to hold in his arms again. The boy survived in a fashion, becoming the time-hopping badass Cable, and yeah, Apocalypse came back a few dozen more times. But when that issue went to print, Apocalypse's ability to reform himself from virtually nothing wasn't part of his canon yet.
Like Most of the X-Men: Long story short, back in Chris Claremont's heyday the illusion-generating villain Mastermind convinced the X-Men that Cyclops was the returning Dark Phoenix, and he was forced to fight them. All of them. With broken ribs. The team at the time consisted of Storm, Colossus, Wolverine, Shadowcat (and Lockheed), and Nightcrawler. Suffice to say, it was no cakewalk. But Cyclops came out on top in the end. Just like he always does.
While Scott Summers draws breath (or is drawn doing so, at least), the dream will never die. At this point, it's no longer Xavier's dream. It's his.
